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With Easter almost upon us there is no
doubt that the church has a challenge in these days to
promote its message. With slow progress in the Church of
England regarding the creation of women Bishops, and the
daily revelations from the Roman Catholic Church regarding
child abuse, those of us on the ‘shop floor’ have our work
cut out to counteract all these bad news stories! As an avid
reader of the ‘ Times’ newspaper it would appear that the
Christian Church is in terminal decline.
This week I was asked to take a
service in a shelter housing area in Fakenham. The reason
was that the local Methodist Church could no longer do this,
and as we are members of Churches Together in Fakenham
offered my services to help out. I arranged for the service
to take place in the resident’s lounge where there is an
organ and so on the day I prepared everything for a home
communion service with two hymns. I was greeted by a good
number of people and then was told that actually only 3 of
them wanted to take communion as nobody else was confirmed.
But afterwards they said they still enjoyed the service. We
agreed only to have communion at Easter and Christmas, and
just a non-communion service on other months of the year.
With a cup of tea following the service, and visits to other
residents who could not get to the service, I went home.
On reflection I realised that it was
quite amazing that out of 50 residents only 3 wanted to take
communion, but that they were very pleased for the clergy to
come and take a service and to visit people afterwards.
With our Bishop of Lynn telling us in
our Diocese that we take 4 funerals for every baptism, and
probably 40 funerals for every confirmation, we are in major
difficulty unless we act to promote the church, to teach and
to train.
As a church we have been bogged down
with finance, clergy pensions, debates on women Bishops,
debates on civil partnerships, and anything to do with gay
people. All these discussions are important, but our main
task is to promote the Gospel.
If a group of women average age 85
find the teaching and practise of the church difficult, and
who have been brought up with Sunday Schools, School
assemblies, full churches, and ‘one parish’ Vicars, then God
help the coming generation.
On Good Friday we have a Workshop for
children, we have a weekly pram service, we are considering
an after school club, we are involved in the local Schools,
we have just completed a ‘Back to Basics’ Christian teaching
course, we have a very successful Schools Music Festival –
so we are doing our bit. But as I prepare for the Easter
Assembly at Fakenham High School next week, I can guarantee
that for the 100 or so children having this Year 8 assembly,
without a hymn, without a prayer and just me talking to them
for 12 minutes that the church has a massive task to get
across its message. Usually I throw Easter eggs at them just
to keep them interested or awake! Most of the teachers have
left anyway.
The knowledge that many of our clergy
have done unspeakable things to children, and that many
congregations in Ireland and Germany are turning against the
church, could well be just another nail in our crucified
Lord.
May be my holiday in Cumbria after
Easter may refresh my soul.
Next week I hope to cheer you up with
a positive Easter Message.
Adrian Bell
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